Adam Lallana credits Liverpool medical staff after his late winner at Norwich

Adam Lallana admits he shook off a knock to earn a winner for Liverpool in the nine-goal thriller at Norwich.

The England midfielder sustained the blow during the loss to Manchester United, but came off the substitutes’ bench at Carrow Road to net the decisive strike in the Reds’ 5-4 win.

Lallana was grateful to make the intervention, rather than remain on Merseyside in anticipation of Tuesday’s Capital One Cup semi-final second leg with Stoke. Liverpool hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg.

“I had a bit of a knock after the United game,” he told liverpoolfc.com.

“Not just credit to the manager, but credit to the medical team as well.

“They could easily have said to stay at Melwood and recover for Tuesday, especially with the amount of injuries we’ve got at the minute.

“Sometimes in football the risks pay off; plenty don’t, but plenty do. I think that risk possibly won us the game.”

Sebastien Bassong thought he had earned Norwich a point, but Liverpool, who had come from 3-1 down to lead 4-3, responded through Lallana to take all three.

The former Southampton captain, who broke manager Jurgen Klopp’s glasses in celebrating the strike, said: “It was a great feeling. I’m sure the celebrations summed it up.

“I think the whole squad, everyone involved, was on the pitch. I’ll take a booking for that one.

“(After) their goal in the 94th minute I remember asking the ref ‘how long left?’ and he said ‘one minute’.

“The next thing I knew the whistle had gone and we had all three points.

“It was a great game to be involved in and one you won’t forget too quickly.”

Dreadful defending contributed to Liverpool conceding four, but Norwich’s rearguard was just as bad.

Steven Naismith scored on his Everton debut against Liverpool and made his mark in his maiden Norwich appearance against the Reds.

The Scotland international, though, was frustrated by the end result.

He told Norwich City TV: “We’re disappointed to lose the game having been comfortably in front.

“We felt we deserved a point, so there’s real disappointment when you can’t see the game out with two minutes to go.

“A lot of people will look at the defence but it’s the whole way through the side. We weren’t good enough at defending as a team, which has cost us.

“They passed the ball through us too easily at times and that’s something we need to improve upon.”

Norwich, already out of the FA Cup, are next in action on February 2, against Tottenham, when Naismith hopes to have a further impact.

“We have a lot of quality going forward, which we’ve shown with our goals,” he added.

“For myself, it was good to get on the scoresheet and be involved in the penalty as well.

“I signed here looking to play a big part for Norwich so hopefully I can continue to do that.”